Financial Reports: Celebrate Express, Brookstone

Despite Sales Gains, Celebrate Express Sees Income Plummet
For the fiscal year ended May 31, Celebrate Express posted sales of $87.0 million, an increase of 26%. Nonetheless, the Kirkland, WA-based party supplies cataloger reported net income of just $405,000, compared with $2.5 million for the previous fiscal year.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, sales rose 24%, to $24.2 million. But the company, whose brands include Birthday Express and Costume Express, lost $324,000 for the quarter, compared with net income of $1.0 million for the previous fourth quarter.

Last month the company announced an “orderly discontinuation” of its Storybook Heirlooms catalog and Website, citing poor sales and years of losses. According to a statement, the brand is expected to represent about 10% of the company’s fiscal 2006 revenue. Storybook Heirlooms offers girls’ special-occasion apparel.

Year-over-year revenue from the Birthday Express and Costume Express brands grew 83%. Web sales represented nearly 70% of the company’s total sales, up from 60% last year.

2Q Sales, Loss Up at Brookstone
Second-quarter sales for Merrimack, NH-based tools and gadgets merchant Brookstone rose 4%, to $91.3 million for the three months ended July 1. Same-store sales for the period inched up 1%.

But the company’s net loss grew as well, to nearly $11.0 million, compared with a loss of $5.7 million for the second quarter of 2005.